Kidney guard



G. c. REYNOLDS KIDNEY GUARD June l, 1943.

' Filed Sept. 19, 1941 Patented June 1, 1943 UNi stares raras-'r ottica' George C; Reynolds, St. Louis, Mo., assignor'to National vulcanized Fibre Co., Wilmington, Del., a corporation of Delaware Appiicatinn. september 1.9, 194.1,serm1 No. 411.511.V

5 Claims.

Thepresent invention relates to athletic equipment and more particularly to a guard toY protect vital organs of thebody inthe playing of games wherein-body contacts play an important part.

In guards used forlthe protection ofV the kidneys. of a player itis usual toattach the guard to a padded waistband which is strapped about the players body in such a position as will properly locate the guard overk the part to be protected. As an accessory to such a guard it has been proposed to attach thereto a leather or sof-t fabric strip, sometimes in the form of a tubular member, which is supposed primarily to cushion an impact with the guard, and secondarily to form a lateral projection extending outwardly from the exposed face of the guard and supposed to servev as a support for the belt by which the pants of the Aplayer are held in place. However, such attached strips have failed to function because they become saturated with perspiration, sag out of shape, allow the belt to work itself out of place and the pants to drop down around the legs. Furthermore, being merely stitched to the guard, the leather strip affords no reinforcing effect like a corrugation and is often completely torn off to leave the guard without support for the belt.

Some of the objects of the present invention are to provide an improved body guard for use in athletic games, to provide a guard and belt support formed of a strong, tough, resilient and rigid fibre that will function under service conditions; to provide a kidney guard having an integral belt supporting ledge recess; to provide a novel ledge construction for' kidney guards which serves to effectively hold the players pants up while maintaining the guard down in proper protecting position; to provide a guard and belt supporting ledge formed as a molded unitary structure of light, tough, impact resisting material; and to provide other improvements as will hereinafter appear.

In the accompanying drawing Fig. 1 represents an elevation of a kidney guard embodying one form of the present invention, the same being shown attached to a padded waist band of which only a part is shown as illustrative of the assembly; Fig. 2 represents an elevation of the inner face of the guard; Fig. 3 represents a section line` 3-3 of Fig. 1; and Fig. 4 represents a plan of the guard.

Referring to the drawing one form of the present invention consists of a guard I0 formed of fibre or other suitable protective material capable of being molded to a required shape and of such tough resistant quality as to withstand impact with the ground orv impact due to collision so that vital parts of; the wearerY are protected in the playing of football or ,othery body contact games. As shown the guard IIJ is relatively thinl and of such arcuate congurationas to generally conform to the shape of the human bodyr at or near the waist line. Y

In. elevation the body is bounded byan upwardly and laterally curved edge I I, and a downwardly and laterally curved edge I2, the latter having an inverse curve I3 for snug lit above the hip of the user. The two edgesr I Iy and I2fmeet at the front of the guard in-a rounded; edge I4, which is relatively narrow in width, while at the rear'of the guard the edges. meet' inY a -'rounded edge I5 which Visfrnateriall'ywider thanthe aforesaid edge Irl. Thus at the rear, where'protection is more or less vital, the body of the guard is of such area as will form a complete shield to receive impacts, while lat the front the protecting area is suiiicient for the purpose but so reduced as not to interfere with movement of the thigh.

In order to provide means for seating a belt to support the pants of the wearer, the dies by which the guard is molded are so shaped as to force the material under 'pressure inwardly from the inner face of the body and outwardly from the outer face of the body along the substantially medial portion of the body whereby a belt retaining lip or ledge I6 is formed upon the outer face of the guard body. It should be noted that the outer Wall II of this lip I6 curves downwardly and inwardly to merge into the face of the guard, while the inner wall I8 inclines downwardly to meet the face of the guard at an angle whereby a linearly disposed recess 20 is provided of such a depth as will snugly receive a belt and prevent its lateral displacement. Thus the outer wall I'I forms a gradually sloping, smooth surface which generally conforms to hip curvature so that the danger of injury incident toy abrupt projections is reduced to a minimum. In use the guard I0 is permanently attached to a waist or girdle 2| by sewing it thereto as indicated by the dotted line stitching adjacent the margin of the guard. Usually both a right side and a left side guard are used. The assembly of the guard and waist is such that the ledge I6 assumes a substantially horizontal position and thus becomes a positive support for the waist line of the trousers when the belt is tightened to force the trouser material down into the recess 20.

When the waist with its attached guards Ill is strapped in place on the athlete, the wearers pants are pulled up and over the Waist until the belt on the pants is above the two guard ledges I6, whereupon the belt is tightened about the guard and pushed down Well within the ledge to seat in the recess at the bottom thereof. Since the ledge wall is rigid and self sustaining any tendency of the belt to ride out of the recess or oi of the ledge is resisted in a positive manner. Furthermore, since there is a tendency of the Waist to ride upwardly the interlock between the ledge and belt prevents such displacement. In other words the two opposed forces (the waist pull upward and the pants pull down) react to maintain afirm lock between the belt and ledge. l

The dotted lines indicate respectively the waist 2|, the pants 22, and the belt 23.

jecting ledge on the outer face thereof, whereby in operative position said ledge is substantially horizontally disposed to serve as a support for the belt portion of the users trousers, while said voutwardly therefrom to form a support for It will now be apparent that a complete unitary guard, for thepurpose intended, has been devised wherein a rigid integral sustaining means is provided for coaction with a belt or other article by which a players pants can be held in place during violent exercise. This also helps to keep the pad down andv properly located. While the material of the guard is extremely light and adds little to theweight of the equipment, it is tough and resists impact without bending or breaking. Furthermore, the molded ledge is molded with a smooth curvature which minimizes the projection while forming a relatively deep seat for retaining the cooperating belt and decreases the wear, marking and soiling of the garment.

Having thus described my invention, I claim: 1. As a new article of manufacture for attachment to a waist or girdle, a bre guard for protecting vital parts of an athlete from impact, said guard being molded with an integral protrousers When the latter are supported by a belt.

4. A .kidney guard for athletes, comprising a body of thin fibre shaped to conform to body curvature, an elongated rigid ledge formed on ythe outer face of said body having an inner wall inclined with respect to the outer face of said body to form a Wedge shaped recess at its juncture with said body to receive the belt portion of trousers when thelatter are supported by a belt.

5. A kidney guard comprising a molded sheet generally curved in a fore and aft section and generally planar transverse to said section, said sheet having a rounded front edge and a rounded rear edge of greater diameter than said front edge, the upper and lower edges of saidfsheet being respectively convex and concave to iit snugly over the hip of the wearer, said sheet including an integral fore and aft elongated corrugation forming an upwardly disposed wedge shaped pocket.

' GEORGE C. REYNOLDS. 

